FERNY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ferny mean? 

• FERNY (adjective)
  The adjective FERNY has 2 senses:

1. abounding in or covered with ferns

2. resembling ferns especially in leaf shape

  Familiarity information: FERNY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FERNY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Abounding in or covered with ferns

Synonyms:

ferned; ferny

Context example:

the ferny undergrowth

Similar:

braky (abounding with bracken)

fernlike; ferny (resembling ferns especially in leaf shape)

Derivation:

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Resembling ferns especially in leaf shape

Synonyms:

fernlike; ferny

Context example:

the ferny shadows of locust leaves

Similar:

ferned; ferny (abounding in or covered with ferns)

Derivation:

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

 Context examples 

Now and again a peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie's evening stories represented as coming out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)